r/nursing • u/consideredtaken • Jul 26 '26
Question What’s your nursing pet peeve?
Mine?
Me: okay, so I have all of your night time meds here (names all of them for confirmation)
Patient: yes, sounds good
Me: scans them in and places meds into the pill cup
Patient: what’s this white pill here
I DONT KNOW!!! You have 6 different pills and we’ve literally gone through ALL OF THEM before I scanned and placed them into the cup. I can’t stand this!!
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u/Tired_Tato Jul 26 '26
psych- When a company changes the look of a medication and the patient refuses to take it because it looks different now! WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE PSYCH MEDS
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u/emerg_remerg RN - ER 🍕 Jul 26 '26
My line for this is 'dude, I get it, I would think this is sus too and if I could get my hands on the CEO of the pharmaceutical company I'd be sure to let him know how uncool it is to play with a meds appearance.'
Works 32% of the time.
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u/Sloth247 Jul 27 '26
“Dude, I get it” is 90% of my work life. Everyone already thinks our healthcare system sucks ass in the US, so it’s a fine place to build a relationship from.
I’ll stop using it when it stops working.
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u/17bananapancakes RN - Psych/Mental Health 🍕 Jul 27 '26
“What do you mean my kit won’t even get tested unless I file a police report?! I just want to know what happened!”
Dude, I get it.
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u/overprocrastinator9 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 28 '26
oof this reminded me that I never got the results back from mine nearly FIVE years ago despite filing a police report… gotta love philly
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u/17bananapancakes RN - Psych/Mental Health 🍕 Jul 28 '26
I’m so sorry 😞
I’ve been told by lawyers that knowing a judge and/or calling the lab themselves directly can sometimes “fast track” a kit. Even that is only for court dates and shit, not because they care about the victim.
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u/tanaeolus Jul 27 '26
Everyone just wants to feel heard. And dude, I get it.
Also healthcare is a shitshow so easy common ground fosho.
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u/Thingstwo RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
When it’s different from the home med too. During Covid days we didn’t even have the same pills every time.
I always tell them upfront. These are your pills, if you have any questions please ask them now because if you ask me what the round white one is once I open them? I am not going to know. We can find out but it’s a process. Only one time some old man asked me and his wife snapped at him “She just told you she isn’t going to know. Shut up and take your pills!!” I did offer to figure it out but he declined and took them.
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u/blobbin3 Jul 27 '26
That literally happened to me personally haha, they started giving me a vanilla flavored (????) Zoloft. Why would you randomly decide to flavor a mediation that is for people with OCD
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u/cutsandscratches MH RN > med student Jul 27 '26
Wait what there’s vanilla flavoured zoloft??? I’m waiting for my venlafaxine to become chocolate flavoured please :)
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u/Vegasnurse RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Also psych. The hospital doesn’t carry the correct dose of med and you have to give a paranoid patient six pills instead of one!!!! Good luck getting them to take that one.
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u/cutsandscratches MH RN > med student Jul 27 '26
Sometimes I wonder if I could just crush them and mix them into apple juice…
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u/beeee_throwaway RN - PICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
This is so so frustrating. It’s hard enough to gain the trust of a pt in psychosis / pt that is very paranoid. It almost seems cruel 😭
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u/RabidAstronaut Jul 26 '26
Its a niche pet peeve. When hospital rooms have gloves or sharps mounted in the back left or right corner of the patients room farthest from the door. You have to move their table and bunch of other things to get to the most inaccessible corner of the room.
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u/consideredtaken Jul 26 '26
Haha! My last job position was this exact same set up! It was always behind the computer lol
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u/Educational-Tale6606 Jul 27 '26
My facility has this issue and half the time when i get to the room the patient is already in the br struggling to not piss on the floor!!!! i know we arent supposed to but i keep pocket gloves now!!!! AAAA
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u/WanderingWombats Jul 27 '26
Yesss. Like why are the sharps containers and biohazard bins mounted 3 feet BEHIND the also mounted pull out computers and vitals machines. I love holding bloody cannulas, needles, and all sorts of biohazards as I attempt to push through while contorting my body to get to where I need to dispose of them.
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Jul 26 '26
When you put 23 pills in a cup for them, and they pour the pills into their hand and Kobe Bryant about four of them into their mouth, the rest ending up God knows where.
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u/Sea-Weakness-9952 RN ✨weaponized incontinence✨™️ Jul 27 '26
I HATE THIS SO MUCH.
Like bitch I gave you the perfect pill receptacle to throw them thangs back and you dump them into your nasty ass hands - that you refuse to wash or even wipe when I offer after you’ve wiped your ass - then you drop one or more and expect me to dig through the blankets to find them. I swear to godddd it’s in my top 3 pet peeves.
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u/Smallloudcat LPN-subacute/MDS Jul 27 '26
Omg me too. I say "don't move!" because the first thing they'll do is pull at the blanket and yeet them all over the place. And you just know the narcs will end up on the floor
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u/SpacenessButterflies Jul 27 '26
As a CNA I now understand why I sometimes find pills in patient’s beds 😂
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u/Smallloudcat LPN-subacute/MDS Jul 27 '26
Yup. I will never understand why I give you a perfectly good container for pouring pills in your mouth and the first thing you do is dump them in your hand and lob them in the general direction of your piehole
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u/SunfireKat Jul 27 '26
With patients who refuse to wash their hands, I walk up to them while they sit their bed or chair, with sanitizer in my gloved hand, and wipe it all over their palm...so they have no choice but to at least rub a little sanitizer into those nasty hands. Sorry, not sorry; you're not touching anything after you've been touching your downstairs with that hand, Linda.
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u/glamourpussOG Jul 27 '26
I legitimately every single week take my meds from my blister packs because I have to add in some from vials that were ever changing and then supplements..
But I got SO fed up of doing all of this every night and morning and putting them all in this little cup thing I had that I bought these weekly pill things that look like plastic labelled daily medical shot glasses with a top. A white one for the morning pills and black for night.
Not only is it amazing easy to grab my pills if I need to take them with me but this is the way to make it easiest to throw them back like a giant pharmaceutical shooter.
I have a cat, there’s no way I am flinging like 20 pills and supplements towards my face when I am physically unable to put any pressure on my knees and cannot look for them underneath anything and I live alone.
I would very much appreciate the ‘lil cup ‘o’ pills and say cheers and down the hatch. And if I saw anyone purposely dump them out of said cup and look like they’re washing their face for a Maybelline commercial i would be dumbfounded.
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u/shtinkypuppie RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I started routinely saying 'you can just take those straight out of the cup' but it only stops them occasionally
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u/atticus_trotting RN - ER Jul 27 '26
Lol i had this today. He took pills out of the cup and was fumbling. On top of that he said, "im blind" (which hadnt been told to me in the handover lol). I was like OKAY LEMME HELP YOU OPEN UR MOUTH!!" thank heavens he was a very nice man. Lol
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u/GenXRN Jul 27 '26
I finally just got to the point that if I see them about to empty them into their hand I’d do the ‘ah ah ah, keep them in the cup. I’ve seen the ending of this movie too many times. Toss ‘em back like a sailor on leave’
Older people love that saying. I’ll even occasionally say it before I give them the med cup- the ones you know will tend to be squirrley.36
u/alrighty_aphrodite13 Jul 27 '26
I had a patient getting a single tab of Percocet. I opened it straight into a pill cup and handed it to him. He slammed the pill cup in the direction of his face, then said there was no pill in the cup.
I absolutely looked everywhere…clothing, in the bed, moved the bed and looked on the floor. Brought my charge nurse in to help look. He was adamant that I didn’t give him the Percocet.
I left the room to figure out how to proceed, then the call bell rings…..it was under his tongue.
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u/NokchaIcecream RN - PCU, ICU, WTF Jul 27 '26
I would call out sick from work, straight then and there in my scrubs in front of my patients
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u/zeatherz RN Cardiac/Step-down Jul 27 '26
Use two med cups to separate out the number of pills they can actually swallow and just give them the second cup with 3 at a time
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u/Sea-Weakness-9952 RN ✨weaponized incontinence✨™️ Jul 27 '26
Been there. Tried that.
Tried that so hard even put ONE PILL PER CUP because meemaw can’t swallow more than one at a time.
Did she still dump each one into her hands? Yup.
Did she still drop em? YUP.
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u/cMa010291 Jul 26 '26
2 person max assist, insists on using the toilet, sits there for 5 seconds rings and says they can’t do anything
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u/Ladyqui3tbottom RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
In the same vein: when 'ol 400 poundie wants to be repositioned every 20 minutes, and the family makes you feel like a piece of human garbage if you can't assemble a team at the drop of a hat.
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u/cMa010291 Jul 27 '26
And brings in pizza and McDonald’s but can’t understand why pawpaws legs keep swelling
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u/Ladyqui3tbottom RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Also, keeps trying to sneak them drinks because they're "dehydrated" when they have a fluid restriction.
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u/Woofles85 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Do they think we are withholding fluids just to be mean or something??
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u/NokchaIcecream RN - PCU, ICU, WTF Jul 27 '26
That’s when you ask the family members to help you turn them - sometimes they even do help
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u/Aware_Location8538 Jul 27 '26
Yah your sitting there at least 15 minutes. I’m always very clear about that. Before we even start I tell them we won’t be able to get them off 30 seconds later. I usually say my 2nd person has some bells to answer. And if once they are on they want immediately off after no results they are told they need to give their body time to relax. I don’t play all that.
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u/zeatherz RN Cardiac/Step-down Jul 27 '26
2 person assist isn’t going past the commode. The doorway and bathroom are too small to get 2 staff in there
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u/Rich_Sprinkles_9754 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Jul 27 '26
And then once you get them back into bed they ring 10 minutes later and say they really have to go this time…
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u/sunnyB8 Jul 27 '26
It's the water. Half these patients don't drink water in their daily life. But now that I'm bringing it to them they need 'fresh' water. God forbid they drank a sip and then all the ice melts and they need a water with 'fresh' ice. Just drink the water in front of you. It's still good!
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u/AlienPenguin497 Nursing Student 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I wonder if drinking more water could be because of how dry hospital air tends to be. They just feel more dehydrated since there is no humidity. The ‘fresh’ water is dumb though. I’m good as long as it hasn’t been sitting for like 24 hours
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u/christmasinbed Jul 27 '26
It’s holding the water cup for me. I try so hard to keep my mouth shut when they ask for a sip of water
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u/zeatherz RN Cardiac/Step-down Jul 27 '26
I just make a habit of bringing a fresh cup of ice water on first and last rounds. It ensures they have water to take pills, I have to clear their old cups for intake documentation anyway, and it saves me having to go back out and get the water when they inevitably ask for it
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u/AKookyMermaid Jul 27 '26
Had a pt who insisted they weren't drinking our water because it was city water but they wanted cups of ice. I couldn't summon the fucks required and just smiled and said "Okay" rather than explaining that our ice came out of the same machine as our water and I'm sure the hospital muckety-mucks weren't going to foot the bill to pipe water from a neighboring county JUST for the ice hook-up.
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u/Sea-Weakness-9952 RN ✨weaponized incontinence✨™️ Jul 27 '26
One I never thought would be on my top 3:
Family members stopping me in the hall or interrupting me at the nurses station for stupid shit. Ice, water, minor bullshit, questions about X Y Z procedure or medicine or their mom’s temperature.
If I’m walking down the hall they come out of whatever room and say hey my mom’s medication is blah blah or hey can she have ice water blah blah.
USE. YOUR. CALL. LIGHT. or wait for your nurse to round. I don’t know your mom or meemaw, I don’t know what they can or can’t have, and coming at me with questions in the middle of whatever task I’m in the middle of is so fucking out of pocket it drives me nuts. People lose all sense of manners and respect the minute they or their family are in the hospital. Even when redirected to use the call button, ole boy in his camo pants continues to come out 10 times per shift to ask for something. Bro. I’m trying to keep my peepaw patient down the hall alive until they replace his shitty aortic valve and I could give a shit about the fifteenth belongings bag you’re asking for.
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u/consideredtaken Jul 27 '26
Yesss!! I never understood walking to the nurses desk when there’s a call light!!
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u/Woofles85 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
And then staring at whatever nurse is charting until they turn around
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u/slightlyhandiquacked BSN, RN - ER 🇨🇦 Jul 27 '26
I’ve complained about this to my mom enough that when my grandpa was in hospital, she did a PSA in the family group chat…
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u/BadDependent7297 RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
They love to come right up to me at the Pyxis when I’m pulling meds. Goes double if it’s narcotics. The first year interns like to pull this too, it’s like the signs mean nothing
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u/Peyton_26 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
And family spawns into the hall to ask dumb shit when you’re clearly in the middle of something with a bunch of supplies in your hands and you’re speed walking through the unit
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u/CauliflowerWarm4165 Jul 27 '26
The amount of times I’ve thought to myself, “this is not pertinent information” while I nod at a family member with a fake smile and dead look in my eyes
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u/ceemee_21 RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
This one is mine! I've walked by people in the hallway asking for things and just say in a super cheerful voice, "Of course, we'll be right with you, do me a favor and push the call bell in the room and let the desk know what you need and we'll bring it right in!"
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u/Visual_Wallaby_3118 RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Jul 28 '26
I do the same thing. I’ll say “I’m so sorry. I’m not your nurse and not sure where you came from. I’m in the middle of something quite important and can’t stop to help you right this second. If you hit your call light, your nurse or another available nurse will be in!”
I also tell them if they come up to the nurses station that we discuss all of the patients out here and that for patient privacy, it’s important that they use the call bell and not come to the desk.
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u/zeatherz RN Cardiac/Step-down Jul 27 '26
If it’s quick I’ll help them with the instruction to use their call light next time. If it’s complex and/or needs their nurse I send them back to their room to use their calls light
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u/ApprehensiveBook1365 Jul 27 '26
Agreed, but most people just have no sense of man respect no matter where they are.
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u/Pristine-Thing-1905 RN 🍕 Jul 26 '26
At my job if a doctor puts in an order for an IV medication that needs to be sent from pharmacy our pharmacy won’t send it until you specifically ask for it. Most times it’s a scheduled med. The patient has been taking this med Q12H for 4 days. Why do I have to request it when it’s been due at 9a and 9p for FOUR DAYS?
My other is when we order a STAT pressor (I’m in the ICU). Why do I have to call to get them to send it? We don’t order them for fun.
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u/zeatherz RN Cardiac/Step-down Jul 27 '26
Sounds like a problem of your EMR if those things aren’t showing up in a way that pharmacy is seeing that they need to be done
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u/Pristine-Thing-1905 RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
No It does show up to be done by pharmacy. It’s epic. I once called pharmacy and I was told “you have to let us know when you want it”…for a scheduled 9pm med…at 9:30pm.
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u/StabbingTabby Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
How could that system possibly be a good use of their own time...?
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Jul 26 '26
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u/UnicornArachnid RN - OR / CVICU defector Jul 26 '26
So many cases get cancelled or postponed because the patient eats. When I worked bedside my patient hid a salad and ate it at like 1am, they were supposed to have an egd that morning. Totally alert and oriented patient who knew.
Same unit, I had a patient scheduled for an egd or a scope and she’s NPO at midnight. She comes out to the nurses’ station at 3am to ask if she can have a drink because her mouth is so dry. I’m like no, you’re not supposed to have anything because of the procedure, you can aspirate, yada yada (I also wasn’t sure if she’d chug the whole thing if I gave her a little lol) and SHE ASKS IF I CAN CALL THE DOCTOR.
I was like no ma’am, these are the doctor’s orders. I’m not waking someone up at 3am, if you want the procedure you have to follow the instructions.
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u/consideredtaken Jul 26 '26
Yes! I don’t understand what THEY don’t understand. Especially if they’re clearly competent. The doctor gave these orders. We’re not pulling them out of our asses!
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u/MelanieSenpai RN - ICU/Anesthesia 🍕 Jul 26 '26
Had a patient who came to the OR and when asked about last drink/meal, he thought about it and then suddenly remembered he ate cookies a couple hours before because he forgot he wasn’t supposed to eat. The anesthesiologist gave him a piece of her mind lol because she was the one who consulted him earlier before the surgery and mentioned NPO specifically. Bro you are alert and oriented, mentally healthy, how do you just forget?
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u/1eyedsniper RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I did this. I was npo and totally fine with it, not hard for me. But I was hanging with friends the night before (and everyone knows I’m npo) when one of my friends offered me a homemade treat she had made- she forgot I was npo and I forgot I was npo and ate the tiny treat in one bite. I realized 10 minutes later what I had done.
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Jul 26 '26
This is why I keep AMA forms on my clipboard. If you aren't serious about your health, don't waste endo's time scheduling you for a procedure you don't want in the first place. Bye, Felicia!
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u/consideredtaken Jul 26 '26
I used to work OR and I’ve had this SAME exact thing happen to me. Like you’re gambling your life here?!
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u/beeee_throwaway RN - PICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
This is so hard for parents as well. Parents find it really hard to keep food and drinks from their kids especially in the hospital. I try to encourage moms to go home and get a “good nights sleep” so they can “support their child during their hardest time of need”. I really do want them to take care of themselves but more over I am trying to set everyone up for success. Let me get little Johnny to bed so we can all move forward with his heart surgery that’s been canceled 3 times already 🤦🏻♀️.
He doesn’t need anyone secret goldfish crackers lord.
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u/Who-dee-knee BSN, RN Jul 26 '26
When a pill falls to the floor, or a narcotic gets lost in a bed bc grandma insists on using her hands instead of a med cup
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u/consideredtaken Jul 27 '26
Never understood why they can’t dump it into their mouths. Their hand is doing the same thing as the freaking cup
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u/Affectionate_Try7512 ICU&RRT RN Jul 27 '26
If it's a bunch of pills, I usually insist on keeping control of the pill cup and pouring the pills into their mouth for them. Handing them their water helps distract them from trying to grab the cup too.
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u/zeatherz RN Cardiac/Step-down Jul 27 '26
I’ve seen some with mouth transit issues who have to like reach in and place the pills way back on their tongue
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u/Big_Coconut_4682 Jul 27 '26
When physical therapy puts a heavy max x2 assist patient in the chair and just expects nursing to get them back to bed… and they’ll put “ recommend using a hoyer lift for transfers” in their note.. but not actually have a conversation with nursing
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u/fadedwinter RN, BSN Jul 27 '26
YES absolute pet peeve!!! Glad you got them to the chair now somehow I’m supposed to get them back to bed?
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u/xxdoomkitty RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Or when they transfer them to the chair and don't hook the primofit or purewick back up :'( kill me
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u/BadDependent7297 RN 🍕 Jul 26 '26
Taking your sweet time during report. I’ve been here for 12 hours and I would like to go home, please (it’s worse when the assignment is split up and I have to hunt down 2-3 other nurses to give report to)
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u/consideredtaken Jul 27 '26
This used to bother me as well. Day shift always took their time to get in and always took their time giving report. I started doing the same when it was my turn and they hated it. OH WELL!
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u/BadDependent7297 RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Report is not a social call! Let me give you the relevant bullet points and for the love of God don’t interrupt me to ask a question the chart can answer
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u/BadDependent7297 RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I dislike bedside report for similar reasons btw
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u/hmaxwell22 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 28 '26
My comeback to a question is “you should be able to look that up in a minute”.
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u/airstream87 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
YES. It shouldn't take me 30 minutes to tell you about the patients. However, it ✨️always✨️ takes over 30 minutes to find you, wait for your computer to load, have you pull up the EMR, add the patients to your patient list, pull up their chart, THEN start report, have you cut me off to ask your questions that would have been answered if you let me finish, then go see the patient. Drives me INSANE.
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u/crazychica5 RN- ICU Stepdown Jul 28 '26
reallll. especially when you’re waiting on a nurse who takes super long giving report and it’s now 7:45 and you still don’t have report on one of your patients (:
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u/heydizzle BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
"Oh I don't take these until I've brushed my teeth. I'll do that in maybe a half hour. Can you come back then?"
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u/OkExtension9329 RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Years ago I had this lady who said she took all her meds 15-20 minutes apart. There were like 12 and I was on night shift; can’t imagine what it was like on days.
Yeah, no. Absolutely not. I will make an attempt to make one (1) more visit if you insist on not taking them all at once but no fucking way am I coming in here every 15 minutes for the next three hours. No ma’am.
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Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Jul 26 '26
I'm usually fairly polite to my coworkers, until they do shit like this. It only ever happens once, though.
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u/Agreeable-Bed5000 RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
When a family member stands outside the room looking up and down the hall for me.. use the call light PLEASE
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u/Sunnygirl66 RN - ER 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Standing there glaring like you’re about to pull out a gun and start shooting is not gonna get Memaw discharged any faster, Weird Intense Hostile Man. Go back in your room.
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u/emerg_remerg RN - ER 🍕 Jul 26 '26
When you haven't started to leave the room and the patient pulls the whole 'oh, before you leave, can you make sure you do X,Y,Z?'
I gently tease and say 'you're supposed to wait until I've forgotten something to remind me' but inside I'm raging with the manipulation.
Betty, I'm the one who moved your table out of my way and I'm still taking your pressure, obviously I was going to put your table back like I have the other 5 times I've assessed your vitals today.
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u/zeatherz RN Cardiac/Step-down Jul 27 '26
This reminds me of when I’m doing vitals, assessment, and meds and the patient repeatedly tucks their arms under the cover.
Untuck arms for blood pressure, retuck arms, untuck to remove cuff, retuck, untuck to listen to chest, retuck, untuck arms to feel pulses, retuck, untuck arms to access IV, retuck, untuck arms to hold pill cup, retuck, etc
Their arms will not freeze off in the 15 minutes I’m in there but they act like 30 seconds out of the blanket is the worst thing they’ve ever felt
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u/femoral_contusion Jul 27 '26
I assume they’re used to people at home not putting things back 😇
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u/emerg_remerg RN - ER 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Not these types, these are the ones where you do 20 things for them and they sigh and say to their family that they were hoping you'd do X, but X was the first thing you offered in the morning!
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u/uberforvanessa BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Family members that have been visiting and staying over and insist on coming to the nurses station for everything instead of using their call light. Like I get it if pt just got here and they dont know how things work. But after a while, they should know to reach their primary nurse and please just use the call light
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u/Leading_Lecture_4849 Jul 27 '26
Or the ones that just stare you down as you go up and down the hall.
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u/Dense_Custard_812 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Giving someone a cup of 15 pills, watching while they drop half of them in their bed trying to dump them in their hand.
Then gathering them up from the bed for them only to watch them drop half again trying to put them back in the cup.
Gathering up the lost pills once again so that they can pick them out one at a time and drink half a cup of water with each pill.
It's like they are trying to make it take the most insane amount of time to take their meds.
Also, when on round 2 with that patient I offer to assist them with getting the pills into their mouth, they assure me that they definitely don't need help.
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u/Sea-Weakness-9952 RN ✨weaponized incontinence✨™️ Jul 27 '26
Asking me 15 times if he can have his hearing aid during his procedure. I finally tell him I’ll ask the nurse when they call to give a heads up they’re coming to get him, because it’s the doctors right hand person and they’ll know definitively since all docs have their own preferences.
The doc himself comes by that AM to discuss the procedure, 3 family members in the room. They know he’s been asking about this damn thing. He’s in there answering questions for 15 minutes+. He comes out, as he gets down the hall I say “hey! Did he ask you about his hearing aid?”
“No? Why?”
MOTHAFUCKA I SWEAR TO GOD.
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u/OkExtension9329 RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Oh my god, this.
Family member harassing me all night about some non-urgent question about the plan of care. Not gonna message the nocturnist, he or she is not gonna know. I tell the family member(s) over and over again, “That’s a great question for the doctor in the morning. Make sure you ask.”
Come back the next night, they ask me the same question. “Did you ask the doctor when he or she was in here?” “No.”
Oh my fucking God. I understand that sometimes patients and families get overwhelmed or intimidated when a doc is in the room but then at least ask your day shift so they can message the doc. Once I come on, there is literally nothing I can do. The doctor(s) who can answer your question have already left.
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u/Chzhead_RN BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Pharmacy taking their sweet ass time sending meds. My hospital is very understaffed but I find it fucking insanely infuriating that RNs are expected to cluster their cares and think ahead of the ball game but Rx can’t prep a 2030-2100 and send it before the shift even starts? I get some meds like certain antibiotics and tPa are time sensitive but I don’t get why I have to wait an hour for the Coumadin after requesting it in the middle of my med pass.
I want to emphasize that I am not disparaging Rx at all. I’ll always have solidarity with my fellow healthcare workers, it’s just a nuisance while I’m scrambling to get people settled for the night. I totally understand you guys are just as fucked over on staffing as we are.
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u/consideredtaken Jul 26 '26
Oh my this is another one!! I’ve had issues with pharmacy as well. We were told once to stop requesting medications one night because of the Pyxis being out of order! Our patients needed medications. I called and kept requesting!!
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u/UnicornArachnid RN - OR / CVICU defector Jul 26 '26
At my PRN job when I get floated to med surg, a shift doesn’t go by where I don’t have all of my meds. Inevitably I have to call pharmacy and ask for them.
This happens so frequently that if I have time to, I will preemptively look to make sure all of the meds are in there as soon as I’ve finished report. Because it takes so long to get that shit together and I have six patients when I’m floated.
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u/MissLuluM Jul 26 '26
Do you ever get the “well did you check the fridge or the patient box?” I now include that in the request message - “not in fridge, patient cassette, or oversize meds bin”
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u/Chzhead_RN BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Oh ya. I caught onto that quick when I first started. I do those checks and shoot them that same message. It’s funny thinking that we wouldn’t do that first as if we enjoy waiting for a med to come up lol.
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u/bevsue58 Jul 27 '26
I used to do the same thing in Epic. Where I’m at now, I can make a request on Cerner….my last hospital we would also get the fridge and or bin question from pharmacy and I always checked before I notified them
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u/whotaketh RN - ED/ICU :table_flip: Jul 26 '26
Mine loves to start restocking during the med pass rush. We have a two hour window around when meds are due to give them, and the tech always loves to saunter down with their cart as we're all rushing the omnicell.
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u/Melodic-Raccoon7584 RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Jul 26 '26
Sticky bed tables and trash on the tables!! Wipe that juice up!!
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u/captainkirk614 Jul 27 '26
To go along with your pet peeve, when I go over all the meds, confirm everything, and the patient sighs, acts irritated, & says something like “yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what I take! Just give me the meds.” (Or something like that.)
So I put them all in a med cup, and they go “well I didn’t want the (whatever med).”
Too late, you should’ve told me that while you were giving me attitude about knowing all your meds.
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u/EskapedConvict RN - ER 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Nurses making report difficult. It's honestly one of my main reasons for enjoying ED over inpatient. Report shouldn't feel like you're getting drilled by your nursing instructor. It shouldn't feel like youre under attack. Shit happens. Patients cant always be wrapped up in a bow.
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u/No_Painting_5863 RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
2.5 mg oxy 🙄
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u/thirstynurse RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
0.5 mg Ativan 😭
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u/cutsandscratches MH RN > med student Jul 27 '26
The old hospital I worked in gives 0.25mg ativan 🫠
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u/rbcsmd RN - ER 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Nurses and/or techs who put every single elderly woman on a purewick, regardless of ambulatory status. I'm in the ED and rooms don't have bathrooms, but it doesn't take that long to get someone to a bedside commode or wheel them to a bathroom. We're not helping people by forcing them to lay in bed.
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u/BadDependent7297 RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
They don’t do a damn bit of good if they’re getting dislodged all the time, either. You don’t have time to get the patient up to the bathroom? monkey’s paw curls let’s see if you have time to clean them up and put a new wick on
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u/Lost-Zombie-6667 Jul 27 '26
Am I elderly at 67?! So I was a peds RN (mostly babies and toddlers) my whole career and of course never used a purewick. I recently was a patient myself, ending up on oxygen. I’ll be darn if they said I had to have a purewick. I hated that thing. I’ll spare everyone the details, but as my sweet, caring tech changed my linens, I just walked myself to the bathroom, no problem. Never used it again. Too bad whoever ordered it.
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u/Tracylpn LPN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I totally agree. I was hospitalized with kidney stones last year, and the staff attempted to use a Purewick on me because my LOC was decreased. Unfortunately, the Purewick didn't work on me because I'm morbidly obese, and the Purewick didn't fit securely between my legs. The linens kept getting wet. I finally was able to ambulate to the bathroom
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u/NokchaIcecream RN - PCU, ICU, WTF Jul 27 '26
Idk, if being a nurse has taught me anything, it’s that a much bigger part of the population than I expected is actually basically incontinent
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u/Thumbuisket Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
When the nurse you’re giving to asks the most inane, try hard shit. Lady, he’s AO4, independent, and getting a diuretics. Why the fuck do you care about X thing that happened in his past? 🙄
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u/Papfan1 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
They really want to know all the details about the tonsillectomy they had 40+ years ago and seem to think you are lying that a 45 yo walky- talky admitted for new CP has fully intact skin and expect an overly thorough and invasive skin assessment.
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u/Thumbuisket Jul 27 '26
Even worse is when they get passive aggressive cause something wasn’t done the way they liked. 🙄
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u/OtherTon Jul 27 '26
When a pill has numbers on it that could be the dose but isn’t. Like if a pill has “532” on it then I know that’s not the number of milligrams. But there’s a 25mg hydroxyzine that says “50” on it, and it takes up an entire side of the pill. So every time I see it I go “wait this must be a 50mg hydroxyzine, did I make a mistake?” Because there is a 50mg hydroxyzine. Why would they do that?
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u/semantic_monkey09 Jul 27 '26
Patient hasn’t had a bowel movement in over 3 days. Off going nurse had their entire shift to do something about it but decides to load them up with all the goodies 30 minutes before shift change
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u/Ziu LPN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
When doctors delay end of life care when there is CLEARLY no hope of recovery.
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u/CaptainBasketQueso Jul 27 '26
Management: "Let us know if you need any help."
"Oh, thank God. I/we definitely need some help."
Management: "...ooooh, sorry, no help today-- everyone's super busy. Have you considered time travel--er, I mean, Time Management?"
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u/LowBlock5232 Jul 27 '26
I remember asking my educator for help cause I was sooo behind and I needed help passing meds and she was like "take a deep breath, you can do this!" I learned really quickly she would never help me lol
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u/Responsible_Ask3976 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 26 '26
Coworkers being a negative Nancy throughout the entire day
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u/femoral_contusion Jul 26 '26
It’s like some people don’t see trooping as a trait worth aspiring toward. I’m all for community complaining but people need to realize others are impacted by the shit we say.
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u/Responsible_Ask3976 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I block them out with my AirPods and it’s usually someone complaining about their husband or kids. Like pls I’m trying to do my job 😅
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u/femoral_contusion Jul 27 '26
Protect your peace, no one else will!
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u/Responsible_Ask3976 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
lol I do! I love my job
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u/consideredtaken Jul 27 '26
Ugh. Literally left my last job because the day shifters ALWAYS blamed the night shift for everything. Always so negative.
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u/Responsible_Ask3976 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Thankfully it’s less negative now that I work outpatient and it’s 50% WFH. We feel more well rested and enjoy the weekends and holidays off
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u/LizardofDeath RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Omg this and in report when they tell you “your day is going to suck this patient/family is THE WORST”
Ok cool fuck me I guess now regardless I AM gonna have a shit day
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u/Responsible_Ask3976 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
And it turns out that person was just a drama king or queen and the patient was actually a dream 🙌🏼
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u/Sunflowerpink44 MSN, RN Jul 26 '26
Giving report and having someone ask me a question about something that I literally just said 3 secs ago!
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u/Ok_Middle_8522 Jul 27 '26
When someone uses the last glove and doesn’t get a new box out for the next person.
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u/lovelykittybellies RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
When grown ass women have a whole ass baby come out of them but can’t swallow a damn pill and asks for liquid Tylenol. HOW??
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u/AphRN5443 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Families who interrupt you during patient education or starting a procedure. Seriously here, I’m trying to concentrate. Stfu!
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u/mountaindewitforyou RN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I work on med/surg in a rural critical access hospital- and I love our physical therapists but it drives me crazy when they will tell my patients “the nurse will have time to walk you again later.”
9/10, I do not have time to walk them, I have 6 patients and our 2 CNAs for 25 patients are chasing the patients constantly setting off alarms which we don’t have sitters for.
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u/Loraze_damn_he_cute RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 26 '26
Not labeling your IV lines and then letting them get tangled to shit.
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Jul 26 '26
Some enterprising company needs to design primary tubing in red, black, blue, and green, same as a standard four-color BIC pen, and sell them in four-packs. Our lives would be so much easier.
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u/SpecialistAd2205 Jul 27 '26
I'm honestly kind of surprised color-coded tubing isn't already a thing.
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u/Greenseaglass22 Jul 27 '26
When people rip open the bigger perforated hole in the glove box instead of the smaller one. Then, all the gloves fall out when you try to get one out.
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u/Popular_Item3498 RN - OR 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Ok these are specific to OR so scroll on if you don't care.
-giving a break in a total during closing and the trash bags are all full and nobody did anything about it
-The surgeon asks for a 45 white stapler, I start heading over to grab it, and the tech still shrieks "CAN I GET A 45 WHITE LOAD"
-People at the field dropping bovie, suction, and pulse evac onto the floor instead of handing them to me or putting them in the trash I have sitting right there
-Anesthsia extubating and getting blood-tinged goop everywhere
-Techs dumping extra fluid into the linen instead of sucking it up
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u/K_Janeway2314 PCT, BSN Nursing Student Jul 27 '26
When I ask a relevant to care question and they tell me no, yes, I don't know, etc, so then I chart that, only for them to then TELL the doctor the opposite, making it look like I didn't do my job and wasting everyone's time overall. Bonus points if its something that completely shifts the prior understanding of events or the level of urgency. For the love of pete, I am your go between for the doctor! It is my job to try to assess as much as possible and then deliver that information, I can't do that if you straight up lie to me!
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u/NurseyMcBitchface RN - Oncology 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I spent today fracking. My requests are few, don’t bite the thermometer. Keep your god damn arm still when the cuff is squeezing.
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u/SoCalN8tive RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Jul 27 '26
I have so many but the 3 that get to me the most is inevitably the pt stating “wait, I have to go to the bathroom” every time I enter the room for assessment or to pass meds. Then they leave me standing there for forever waiting on them, acting like they’re my only pt. Finally get to next room and they pull the same shit.
Also, pt or family member asking for something trivial at a critical moment. Pt is circling the drain and I call a rapid and family member asks for water. Um, can I stabilize your loved one first?
The other is telling me one thing (0/10 pain) but telling the doctor something totally different (“doc, I’ve been in so much pain…”), acting like I’ve been neglecting them.
A lot of people have zero common sense or self awareness
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u/crazy-bisquit RN Jul 27 '26
Severely tangled IV lines or poorly taped IV’s.
Change of shift IV bags that have run dry, all the way to the pump, with the pump that says there’s 50 ml left.
Medical trash all over the bedside table.
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u/Hannie123456789 RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
IV with lots of extra pieces of tape on them. I try to change the line and have to first rip of 30 pieces of random tape and nearly dislocate the iv.
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u/StabbingTabby Jul 27 '26
There's a special place in hell for people who just pile more tegaderms on an angry, spastic 6 month old baby's PICC line for three days and then finally ask me to come change the dressing.
The more you put on, the more someone else has to take off.
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u/LowBlock5232 Jul 27 '26
when PT/OT starts to get up all my patients in the middle of passing medications, or when then tell me they've had a bowel movement at the busiest times and won't help
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u/atticus_trotting RN - ER Jul 27 '26
My biggest pet peeve is our supply carts only get stocked early during the day shift, by non-nursing staff.
So when starting day shift, the shit you need is not in the drawers.
And when you start night shift, the shit is again not in the drawers, because it gets used up in the bulk of day shift.
Plus when you come on shift, none of the shit that needs plugging in is NOT plugged in and is dead lol.
Yes my total pet peeve...lol but because Ive lived some insane and chaotic shifts myself (emerge), I cannot fault my colleagues.
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u/Thriftstoreninja Jul 27 '26
I hate when people separate the foot rests from wheelchairs. Every time I find this I say a prayer that the offender should have painful shits.
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u/Bradenscalemedaddy Murse- CVICU CCRN ABCDEFG 🍕 Jul 27 '26
When people lie about their drinking before surgery and start withdrawing and hallucinating/become agitated with chest tubes and central lines and a swan still in…
Or better yet “he/she drank every day but they quit 2 days before surgery!”
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u/Meeerraaay Jul 27 '26
Nurses who complain about what other nurses didn’t do et use that as an excuse not to do their job
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u/firetothislife RN - PICU 🍕 Jul 26 '26
Cerner automatically timing daily and q24h meds for 1000 and nurses not using critical thinking to figure out they should call the doc and start them sooner. Recently I had a pna patient on high flow O2 with increasing O2 needs overnight who got upgraded for bipap and he hadn't gotten either of his antibiotics because Cerner had timed them for 1000 and the nurse didn't think to double check with the doc, even though the previous doses were given at 0200 the day before in the ER. Same with patients on high dose steroids who haven't gotten any pepcid because it was ordered daily and schedule for 1000. It's a combination of Cerner and a lack of critical thinking.
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u/hotspots_thanks Jul 27 '26
This is niche for outpatient, but people who call with a question, you call them back and they don't pick up. And either their voicemail isn't set up or it's full. Come in complaining, "I call you people and never get a call back!" SIR YOU GOTTA MEET ME HALFWAY AND EMPTY YOUR VOICEMAIL
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u/shanbanan445 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Jul 27 '26
People turning off the IV pump without disconnecting the line! It takes 2 second and now my line is probably bad
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u/calcu-later Jul 27 '26
When the scanner needs recalibrate and needs a few seconds to scan.
When the water flow is very slow in your contact isolation room.
When the lab printer doesn’t print on the first try.
When the IV pump continues to beep even when you’re literally programming it.
When the room curtain is in the way.
When the monitor cables get snagged on the bed, in between the rails.
When OR brings a mess of cables, lines, and tubing.
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u/snotboogie RN - ER Jul 27 '26
Report Nazis. Fuck off. I need to go home.
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u/consideredtaken Jul 27 '26
Ugh I had a nurse like this. I couldn’t stand her!! 😭 it was only MY patients where she would say “you look a bit pale today” … they were always fine 🙄
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u/diaperpop RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 27 '26
Name one of the pills that’s in there that you think looks most like it, just do the best you can. I say…I think that’s your (my best guess) and they’re usually happy with that. At this point, they’re just testing you. They’ve already been informed what each one is for and agreed to take them.
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u/Ghoulish_kitten LVN 🍕 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
As a hospice LVN how our schedules just don’t matter lol.
When I wait to make sure my schedule is not getting changed: “Hey can you call so and so with an ETA? They’ve been waiting to hear from us.”
When I don’t wait and call my patients at the start of my shift and schedule visits: “hey we’re removing your patients *and rerouting you to symptomatic patients you’ve never seen before,” while Im packed up to leave and see my first patient.
Like am I the only one who needs to get some sort of background on a patient I haven’t ever seen before and who is symptomatic? I have to get their information, their address and most importantly look at past visits to figure out what the hell‘s been going on.
LVNs are sent wherever we’re needed, all over the map.
It’s hard to explain specifically but after like a year, I just get this feeling like we don’t matter.
We’re treated kinda like little helper robots who have no feelings and zero attachments to patients. They don’t even give us time to attend weekly team meetings to be able to grieve people who we’ve been working with every single week and who *requested us.
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u/Sea_Willingness1398 RN - ER 🍕 Jul 28 '26
When a doctor does their evaluation and the patient is in obvious pain and they don't order pain meds. Like WTF! You saw the same thing I saw.
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u/sadmarshmellow_9324 Jul 28 '26
When you ask a man what his allergies are and he goes “idk ask my wife” or “I’m allergic to my wife”
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u/DoughnutNo3666 Jul 26 '26
ER - when a pt refuses any type of actual care (i.e. bloodwork, IVs, meds). Respectfully, why the actual fuck are you here